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The first journey of 2008 was an impromptu trip 

to my old skiing haunt of Bormio in Valtellina Italy.

However I decided to travel by train across the Swiss Alps into Italy. The first leg was a BA flight to Zurich with an overnight stay in the Airport Hilton, then an inter-city from Zurich HB to Chur. There I sprinted to the Chur to St Moritz train's Restaurant Car for a table at lunch. Having lunch going over snowy mountain passes is

one of life's great tarvelling moments

and I fully enjoyed excellent soup and

veal stew washed down by a half bottle of Swiss red wine.

My hotel in St Moritz was 5 minutes from the station and was modest but comfortable. The next morning took me back to the station

for the journey to Tirano in Italy for the spectacular journey over the Benina Pass rising to 2300 metres.

 The train with terrific observation cars wound its way through tunnels over bridges up and over the pass with regular stops to put down or pick up skiers. Eventually running through the streets of small Italian towns the train arrived in Tirano after a journey of 2 and a half hours.

40 minutes later I was having lunch with friends in Mario's Restaurant at Cuik at about 1750 metres. The next three days was a mixture of sun, good food and wine, good conversation and visits to Bormio 2000 and 3000 metres.

 

    

 

A very relaxing and enjoyable 6 days in the Swiss and Italian Alps. My thanks to Richard Oakes for the invitation and to Alfredo and Elizabeth Cantoni of the Alpi Golf Hotel.